~SPace Weather Upate Sun Gets Back to Work~

BACK TO WORK (UPDATED): After a quiet weekend with no flares of any significance, the sun went back to work on Monday morning and launched a bright coronal mass ejection (CME) into space. The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory recorded the expanding cloud during the early hours of Feb. 6th:

Update: New images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) show that this was a frontside event. The explosion occured when a magnetic filament draped over the sun's northeastern limb rose up and snapped. An extreme UV movie from SDO shows the structure lifting off. Solar flare alerts: text, voice.

AURORA WATCH: Earth passed through a minor solar wind stream on Feb. 4-5. The weak impact of the solar wind was just enough to spark auroras around parts of the Arctic Circle. Frank Olsen sends this 20-second exposure from the waterfront outside Tromsø, Norway:

"Despite bright moonlight and low solar activity,

there were some great auroras last night," says Olsen.

The effects of the solar wind are subsiding, and the auroras might disappear into the moonlight for the next few nights. Geomagnetic activity is expected to hover at low levels for the next 48 hours. Aurora alerts: text, voice.

more images: from Oivind Toien of Fairbanks, Alaska; from Fredrik Broms of Kvaløya, Norway

Solar wind speed: 413.7 km/sec density: 0.1 protons/cm3 explanation | more data Updated: Today at 1756 UT X-ray Solar Flares 6-hr max: C1 1727 UT Feb06 24-hr: C1 1727 UT Feb06 explanation | more data Updated: Today at: 1800 UT Daily Sun: 06 Feb 12 A new cluster of spots is growing just north of AR1410. Credit: SDO/HMI Sunspot number: 37 What is the sunspot number? Updated 05 Feb 2012 Spotless Days Current Stretch: 0 days 2012 total: 0 days (0%) 2011 total: 2 days (<1%) 2010 total: 51 days (14%) 2009 total: 260 days (71%) Since 2004: 821 days Typical Solar Min: 486 days Updated 05 Feb 2012 The Radio Sun 10.7 cm flux: 103 sfu explanation | more data Updated 05 Feb 2012 Current Auroral Oval: Switch to: Europe, USA, New Zealand, Antarctica Credit: NOAA/POES Planetary K-index Now: Kp= 1 quiet 24-hr max: Kp= 2 quiet explanation | more data Interplanetary Mag. Field Btotal: 6.9 nT Bz: 3.3 nT south explanation | more data Updated: Today at 1758 UT Coronal Holes: 06 Feb 12 Solar wind flowing from this coronal hole should reach Earth on or about Feb. 10th. Credit: SDO/AIA.